America is a different place today. That's good, because we need to be.
Many of our citizens were beginning to forget why America is special.
When asked where our wealth and high standard of living came from, many
would simply shrug their shoulders and say, "was is not always so?"

Many Americans may have forgotten (or never were taught) that such a
wonderful life has a price---eternal vigilance. It means we must revere
our history and understand how we got to be the greatest nation on earth.
It means we stand for our liberties. It means we fight back when attacked.
It means we accept no substitute for the right to live as we wish.

The right to live, free of fear from government oppression; free to travel;
free to associate with whom we choose; speak what we wish is the key to
our liberty. Few societies in the world share that vision and understanding.
Consequently few enjoy our happy lives. Their lives are more drudgery
than joy. Many find that their government has reduced them to the statues
of meaningless pawn to be sacrificed when necessary. Many try to escape
to our paradise because they desire our precious breath of life. Others
seek to destroy us, perhaps to obliterate our golden image from their
jealous minds.

Hate is a powerful weapon. It can find ways to overcome even the most
awesome military power on earth. That was proven with the horrible terrorist
attacks in New York and Washington. Americans were dumbfounded. How could
such a thing happen in this country? Why would they sacrifice their lives
to kill innocent people?

Instead of standing for our rights, we have pushed the problem off to
global diplomats to discuss how we should behave. We let them dictate
our response. We permit our leaders to sit in endless meetings that legitimize
hate mongering against us. We obeyed the United Nations and stopped short
of defeating Saddam Hussein. We permit nations to harbor terrorists who
seek to do us harm. We sit by while our ships are attacked and our embassies
are bombed.

Then we naively apologize for our wealth and success. We just want to
be safe. We just want those nasty people to leave us alone. Lack of resolve
has made us weak and vulnerable to attack.

Now the nation is coming together. Reawakened. Resolved to fight. The
nation's reaction must be swift, sure and complete. Our leaders have a
responsibility to resolve this issue and restore national security. Terrorism
must be wiped from the face of the earth. Marginal or measured responses
will only serve to anger this enemy and guarantee more attacks. Terrorists
everywhere who make war on innocent men, women and children must be obliterated.
There must be no safe harbor for them.

Americans must once again be free to live in our own country or walk
down the street of any other nation without fear. That will only happen
when our enemies understand that to pick on an American, any American,
puts their own existence in jeopardy.

In fighting this war, however, the U.S. government has a responsibility
to its own people. Americans have proven time and again that we are willing
to temporarily sacrifice some of our liberties in order to help bring
about a permanent victory over our enemies, but we should not be willing
to sacrifice it forever.

It is the duty of the U.S. government to quickly find these murderers
and win this war they have been waging against us. Then, just as quickly,
the government must restore our free society. We must not be forced to
live in an armed camp of surveillance cameras, metal detectors, identification
papers, strip searches, bank account surveillance and massive government
data banks under the excuse of protecting us.

Living in that sort of world means the terrorists have won. Only when
Americans once again resolve to live in a totally free society without
fear of hijacking, kidnapping and murder will America be able to claim
victory over terrorism and again stand as the beacon of freedom for the
world.

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report, a monthly
newsletter, and president of the American Policy Center, an activist,
grassroots think tank headquartered in Warrenton, Virginia. The Center
maintains a website at www.americanpolicy.org.
(c) Tom DeWeese, 2001.